Since launching at the start of the academic year in September 2012, The University of Birmingham's new internal recruitment agency, 'Worklink', has been successfully using Eploy's cloud based recruitment and applicant tracking software to help manage, centralise and promote its full range of campus services to students and recruiting managers.

Worklink represents a new concept for university recruitment in that it is entirely focussed on providing opportunities for students to engage in paid work at the University of Birmingham; with the team managing the whole process from promotion to selection and appointment, through to timesheet management and payroll.

Based at the Guild of Students Worklink's prime objectives are to increase accessibility and the number of casual-work opportunities for students, and save managers time in securing the right student for the position.

Proof of Worklink's success, is that in less than a year student placements have risen from 546 to over 2200, with more than 6,500 timesheets processed - more students are now able to benefit from the income this provides, while also gaining valuable work experience across all areas of the university, namely in hospitality, administration, recruitment, academic research and as ambassadors.

The creation of Worklink has also directly provided work opportunities for five students to date.

Fundamental to Worklink's service is Eploy's web based recruitment system, which powers the whole internal recruitment function by automating key processes, streamlining administration and facilitating communications with all the parties involved, including the students, recruiting managers, HR, Payroll and Finance.

In fact Worklink is leading the way in university recruitment by utilising all of Eploy's feature rich functionality, including a bespoke Hiring Manager portal and timesheet authorisation system.

Tracy Murphy, the Recruitment Manager at Worklink, is acutely aware of what software works, and more importantly what doesn't, having previously worked in recruitment agencies. On Eploy she said: "The software's functionality does exactly what it is has been designed to do - manage the recruitment journey from start to finish - and it does it very well."<

"Plus we were able to cost-effectively enhance the core functionality in line with the needs of the university's strict working practices and policies. This included configuring the online timesheet authorisation portal to enable students to enter information for approval by a multi-layered internal process, and programming the system to automatically send email alerts to notify recruiting managers of outstanding timesheets and generate custom reports."

For the university's 27,000 students, Eploy's 'one stop' web service enables candidates to register their details online using a detailed questionnaire, from which Worklink can automatically skill match and shortlist candidates prior to interviews. Worklink also has the ability to email students about new positions as they become live, using Eploy's automated features.

"With Eploy we are able to proactively promote Worklink and give all our students the opportunity to access placements. Plus it saves us, and the recruiting manager, an incredible amount of administration and recruitment time," confirmed Tracy.

Tracy added: "Importantly Eploy is our technology partner of choice. The team have supported us all the way; from the initial concept through to development, implementation and training, and now with their continued technical support."

The co-founders of Eploy, Chris Bogh and Paul Burgess, are both former students at the University of Birmingham, and Chris said: "It was great to go back in a professional capacity and provide our expertise to Worklink. As past students it's fulfilling that we can now help Worklink provide valuable and meaningful employment opportunities for the current and next generation of students."

Following the success of Worklink and its implementation of Eploy, Tracy who is an Executive Member of the National Association of Student Recruitment Services (NASES), is now using her experience to support and train other NASES members on setting up an agency style service.

Worklink's success was also recognised at this year's University Oscars; they won Team of the Year and Tracey was awarded the Director's Best Newcomer Award.

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